1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tray and an image forming apparatus provided with the tray, and more particularly to a tray that is constructed to be drawable in a specified first direction from the body of an image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus provided with the tray.
2. Description of Related Art
As a conventional tray, there is known, for example, a lockable storage cassette (which will be referred to as storage cassette) disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-8291. FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of a handle 500 of the storage cassette disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-8291.
The handle 500 is a part of the storage cassette, and comprises a grip 520, a support 521, bolts 522 and a lock mechanism 523. The support 521 serves as the body of the handle 500, and the support 521 is joined to a cassette body on which printing media are stacked. The bolts 522 are attached to the support 521. In order to draw the storage cassette from the body of the image forming apparatus, a user pulls the grip 520. A long hole 520a is made in the grip 520. One of the bolts 522 is inserted in the long hole 520a, whereby the grip 520 is joined to the support 521 so as to be slidable to and from the support 521. The lock mechanism 523 is a mechanism for locking the handle 500 in the body of the image forming apparatus. The lock mechanism 523 is constructed such that the handle 500 is unlocked from the body of the image forming apparatus with a pull and slide of the grip 520 from the support 521.
The storage cassette of the above-described structure as disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open. Publication No. 2006-8291 has a problem that it makes a collision noise when drawn from the body of the image forming apparatus. More specifically, when the storage cassette is drawn from the body of the image forming apparatus, the grip 520 is pulled to slide, whereby the grip 500 is unlocked from the body of the image forming apparatus. Thereafter, the bolt 522 is caught in the grip 520, and the force applied to the grip 520 is transmitted to the support 521 via the bolt 522. During the series of actions, when the bolt 522 is caught in the grip 520, a collision noise is made.